Old Parquet Floor Blocks

[County4x4]

The Blazers are okay - but the ones I sell are better:001_tongue:

 

Blazers are about 1.5 hours per kg burning time. Ours are about 2 hours per kg. So ¼ more efficient on burn time.

 

Plus ours keep their heat value up for most of the time they are on the stove. Blazers tend to slip away after about an hour. So a fair bit more efficient on heat output.

 

Ours keep their shape when burning so can be used very easily on small stoves, and broken into smaller pieces more easily than Blazers. So better on convenience and use too. Many of the briquettes produced in a piston briquetter tend to expand quite a bit once alight - if you poke them they turn back into a pile of hot sawdust. Ours don't move at all, and will still be recognisable after several hours.

 

The good thing about briquettes over logs is that they have a much lower moisture content and therefore more available energy to give off as heat. Tests on the ones I sell came out with one tonne of briquettes having a similar energy content to just over four tonnes of seasoned mixed hardwood.

 

And unlike chipboard of course, there are no glues, binders, additives, preservatives or anything else for that matter - just pure wood.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[Tom D]

The Blazers are okay - but the ones I sell are better:001_tongue:

 

Blazers are about 1.5 hours per kg burning time. Ours are about 2 hours per kg. So ¼ more efficient on burn time.

 

Plus ours keep their heat value up for most of the time they are on the stove. Blazers tend to slip away after about an hour. So a fair bit more efficient on heat output.

 

Ours keep their shape when burning so can be used very easily on small stoves, and broken into smaller pieces more easily than Blazers. So better on convenience and use too. Many of the briquettes produced in a piston briquetter tend to expand quite a bit once alight - if you poke them they turn back into a pile of hot sawdust. Ours don't move at all, and will still be recognisable after several hours.

 

The good thing about briquettes over logs is that they have a much lower moisture content and therefore more available energy to give off as heat. Tests on the ones I sell came out with one tonne of briquettes having a similar energy content to just over four tonnes of seasoned mixed hardwood.

 

And unlike chipboard of course, there are no glues, binders, additives, preservatives or anything else for that matter - just pure wood.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

 

How are they made / stuck together? I'm guessing a lot of pressure is involved?

[County4x4]

An awful lot of pressure mate - over 80 tons/square inch! Ours are pushed out of a screw extruder and get so hot they quite often char to some extent down the middle. The manufacturer had a fair bit of African hardwood waste from a furniture company once and that used to catch fire quite frequently until they learned to blend it with less fancy stuff. At the high pressures and temperatures involved, the lignins and resins in the wood soften and then act as a natural glue to hold them together when they cool - nothing more to it than that. Moisture level of the feedstock is critical though as if it's too wet you get steam flash forming inside the briquette and it blows them to bits. Too dry and they just don't stick together.

 

Finished product moisture level is about 6.5% - though they do have to be kept dry - storing them outside in the log store probably won't be a recipe for success!

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[woodrascal]

What about these? I had a client who was using them, they burn long and very hot, Quite impressive. like a dense chipboard they are.Blazers Fuels - Fuel Logs

 

We've had quite a few bags of these over the years. They're pretty good. it's best to break them in two as they expand like mad when they burn. I'd prefer some good dry Beech anyday, but they do chuck out some serious heat. They work really well in our Esse Cooker.

[County4x4]

it's best to break them in two as they expand like mad when they burn.

 

I used to sell a similar type of briquette a few years back and ended up having to tell customers not to pile them up like logs after one guy had a couple of them "escape" from his open fire!!

 

The ones I'm doing now don't expand at all so much more relaxed!

 

Andy

[chilli]

the lignins and resins in the wood soften and then act as a natural glue to hold them together

The company that Mrs Chilli works for developed a process called 'Friction Stir Welding' which brings them an annual income of several £m from the rights. The principle was stumbled upon quite by accident when timbers used to support materials on a vibration testing rig 'welded' themselves together!

[slippery]

could have been poplar or alder, poplar burns cold and full of smoke, and alder needs a lot of heat to ignite the gasses

[BigRedDog]

I sell Blazers and a couple of other briquettes, are you making the ones you're talking about Andy? If so £/tonne, I'll take a few pallets to try em?

 

Ply is they best for heat, all that lovely toxic gas!

[stoker-steam]

The chippy in work thinks its Pitch Pine, it certainly weeps oil when its burning. I will not be using any more of it thats for sure.